• Heather N Damhoff, Robert J Kuhn, and Stephanie N Baker-Justice.
• Department of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky HealthCare, Kentucky Children's Hospital, Lexington, Kentucky.
• J Pediatr Pharmacol Ther. 2014 Jul 1;19(3):174-81.

ObjectivesIncreased acuity within the pediatric emergency department increases the risk of medication-related adverse events, despite the availability of validated dosing references. The eBroselow system is a standardized, web-based, bar code-enabled dosing system that eliminates the need for mathematic calculations. This study was designed to assess the accuracy of the eBroselow system and the time needed to prepare medications during pediatric simulated resuscitations compared with standard dosing references.MethodsThis is a two-treatment, two-period crossover trial in which 13 nurses from the adult emergency department who had had pediatric advanced life support training within the previous 3 years, carried out medication dosing during pediatric code simulations. Nurses were randomized to the eBroselow system or to traditional dosing references during period one and transitioned to the opposite treatment group during period two.ResultsUse of the eBroselow system resulted in a 24.6% increase in the accuracy of prepared medications, with a complete elimination of clinically significant errors (those ≥20% deviation from the recommended dose). In addition, on average, medications were prepared 8 minutes faster with the eBroselow system versus standard dosing references.ConclusionsUse of the eBroselow system, a standardized, bar code-based, electronic medication dosing reference, increased the accuracy of medication doses prepared during pediatric code simulations by nearly 25%, with no errors being considered clinically significant.

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